She finally found job of her dreams

New staff member seeks to give at-risk students a boost.

BUCHANAN -- She works long hours and sometimes even on evenings and weekends, but Cindy Soltys considers being the new at-risk academic interventionist at Buchanan High School her dream job.

Soltys previously worked at both Lake Michigan College and Southwestern Michigan College. She was the director of enrollment at SMC but jumped at the chance to work at Buchanan High School.

"Every day when I park behind the school and come in the back door, I come in and say 'oh my God, I can't believe I'm working here,'" she said. Soltys is a Niles native but has lived in Buchanan for 20 years.

Soltys began her new duties at the high school last fall. Her job is one of several created thanks to the $2 million state school improvement grant the high school received last August.

"The grant provided the perfect storm of opportunity," she said. "The high school's motto is to seize the opportunity inside the challenge and the grant has allowed me to be here working with a great administration and a great staff."

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She said BHS Principal Sharon Steinke has been her mentor for years, and she jumped at the chance to come to work at the high school when the grant provided funding for the new position.

"She had encouraged me to get my master's degree in school counseling, and I did," she said. "This (the grant) happened at the same time I was wrapping up my degree, and she asked if I was ready to make a change. This is my dream job.

"My position is primarily to work with students who have been identified as having a potential for dropping out," she said. "Some have academic difficulties, some are having problems because of their life circumstances.

"My job is to motivate them and give them new skills to use," she said. "I have a great group of kids I work with, I have 25 to 30 kids from ninth through 12th grade. They're great kids."

She said the students she's working with may have attention-deficit disorder and need more resources or may be homeless or dealing with a bad home situation.

"They're dealing with stuff that's going on outside of school," she said. "All they want to be is normal, but they don't have normal circumstances. I love working with them. ... The grant allows us to identify more students and provide more services."

Soltys said her workday isn't just limited to the hours that school is in session.

"I work evenings and weekends to be able to meet with parents who can't come in during the day," she said. "I usually stay Mondays and Wednesdays till 6 and I'll stay other days, too. ... It's busy, I work 55 to 60 hours a week, but I wouldn't change it."

She said students are referred to her by teachers and administrators and even parents will call her to see if she can help. "People know me in the community and will call or say something if they see me," she said.

Soltys also has started other programs at the high school, organizing the recent first senior breakfast where seniors heard motivational speakers and spent a couple of hours together.

She also organized the "Turn Screens Off, Turn Brains On" event as juniors prepared for the Michigan Merit Exam testing in early March. Students pledged to turn off television, computers and the like for three days before the test.

"The idea is that it takes three days for your brain to reboot," she said. "The study determined that it took as few as three days prior to a test to see improved test scores.

"Students were surprised, they all felt they were more focused," she said. "They didn't realize how dependent they were on computers, phones and other items. They spent more time with family and friends, they slept better and they felt they did better on the test."

She also has started after-school programs in which students get the chance to do everything from catch up on academics to yoga and other recreational activities.